


Before Sunrise

by the_messrs_marauders



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Identity Swap, Johnny Depp - Free form, M/M, Parallel Universes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:14:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26351740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_messrs_marauders/pseuds/the_messrs_marauders
Summary: An au where Johnny Depp and Gellert Grindelwald swapped. (Takes place around the time after FB2) So...Grindelwald in our world? Depp in wizarding world? What would happen??
Relationships: Albus Dumbledore/Gellert Grindelwald
Comments: 17
Kudos: 54





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [爱在黎明破晓前](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24125554) by [HallSpin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HallSpin/pseuds/HallSpin). 



For a while, Dumbledore thought he was standing before the Mirror of Erised, looking at the very person that haunts him in his memory, then he realised he was walking on the viaduct that leads to Hogwarts, with the culprit that almost destroyed Paris recently standing on the other end.

Oh, great, thought Dumbledore, ironically, he had finally started to hallucinate, thanks to the sickening amount longing of his, or maybe he’s just mad -- for a moment he really thought Grindelwald had come to see him. Don’t be silly, he admonished himself, the engrossed Dark Lord would not come to Hogwarts just for a vial, and would certainly not gaze at him with such intense stare, as if he’s the only person left on Earth. 

Dumbledore restrained himself, passing by the Dark Wizard while staring straight ahead, wishing that this was just a prank from some mischievous student, though he wondered which of the students was capable of such outstanding transfiguration. Of course, his expectations fell short. The man he ignored shifted his weight from one foot to another as if hesitating about something, then a voice, resembling, yet not so similar to Grindelwald's, called after him.

“Jude...... Law?” 

Dumbledore was stunned, uncertain whether that was directed to him.

But the Dark Wizard seemed to take this as some favourable reaction, he walked toward him affably, a slightly bashful and uneasy smile hanging over his face -- once again, Dumbledore was almost certain that he had gone mad, why else will he see...... shyness on the Dark Lord’s face? While Dumbledore was still in shock, the blonde man was already standing before him, not too near, but remained courtesy like meeting him for the first time, looking at him with flickering eyes.

“Hey, Mr. Law.” Dumbledore heard the man’s mystifying appellation, “I thought I’m the only one who came early.” The man said with a slow, yet completely free of German accent, American English, “Have you seen the others? You know, David said the filming will take place normally tomorrow, right? I didn’t see anyone else, it was weird, but I’m relieved now that I see you.”

Dumbledore has. No. Idea. What he was talking about.

“David?”

Among all of his queries, Dumbledore chose the one that wasn’t of importance, only because he was dumbfounded. The man before him looked just like Grindelwald, heterochromia with a light coloured iris in one eye and dark in the other, pale blond coloured hair, traditional Bavarian outfit, thigh leather trousers and boots, not to mention that iconically gorgeous appearance. Dumbledore’s certain that there’s no one else in the world that could look like that.

The man blinked, beneath his beautiful double eyelids were a pair of innocent liquid eyes, this is so not Grindelwald. “David Yates, the director, he didn’t inform you? Like cancelling the filming due to the epidemic? You know, I rarely use social media, I might have missed the message.”

“...... I don’t know him.” Dumbledore said dryly. He was utterly confused. This might be some game Grindelwald is playing, scheming to get back the blood pact pendant, it seemed to be the only valid explanation now.

“You don’t know him?” The man looked confused now, “is this a joke? April fool’s prank? Should I laugh?” he was nervous, panicking, he even let out a dry laugh.

“Grindelwald, if this is another one of your games, then it needs to stop now. Because it’s really very, very not smart, and a little ridiculous.” Dumbledore finally found his rationality. He took a step back, standing further away from the blond Dark Wizard, and realising how painfully difficult the step was. He had hid far enough, long enough, why did they still come to him.

“Grindelwald? Oh, uhh, are we filming? I didn’t see the cameras, lights or any other actors. To be honest, I haven’t seen the script yet, David said he will bring it to me today, you know, they don’t want to spoil the movie.” The man kept looking around, he seemed to be searching for something, both his legs moved around, and he kept fidgeting, Dumbledore frowned, listening to the Dark Wizard’s heedless nonsense, “you’ve seen the script? We’re filming a scene together? Is this a rehearsal? Cause I really feel like something is wrong.”

“I think something is wrong too.” Dumbledore murmured, the man casted him a, ‘what did you say’, questioning look, Dumbledore shook his head, “you know we can’t hurt each other, it’s pointless for you to come.”

The blond wizard looked more confused now, “hurt each other? Oh, no, I won’t hurt you. Why would I hurt you?”

“What are you doing here?” If it’s possible, Dumbledore would be very happy to use Legilimency to see what Grindelwald’s up to, but on one hand, the blood pact prevented him, on the other, even if the blood pact didn’t exist, Grindelwald’s Occlumency is strong enough.

“Same as you, I’m here to film.” The man rubbed his hands together, giving the impression of tense and uneasy, and his eyes went from their initial joyful to a more and more confused look. No matter looking from which angle, these didn’t seem like the expressions and actions Grindelwald would possess. Lastly was his words, Dumbledore couldn’t understand a single sentence.

“No, I’m here to teach, apparently you aren’t.”

“Teach? Jude, aren’t you here to shoot? Is it cancelled or……”

“What are you talking about, who’s Jude?”

Now the man seemed to freak out, he looked at Dumbledore blankly, for a while he was unable to speak. “You’re not Jude Law? But you look exactly like him.”

“And you look exactly like Grindelwald.”

“Well of course, I act as Grindelwald, remember? Of course we look exactly the same.”

“I don’t know what tricks are you playing, Grindelwald.” Dumbledore lost his patience, he felt like a monkey or other magical creatures that was thrown into a circus, and the man in front of him was a sanctimonious animal trainer, forcing him to act out an awkward pantomime that he didn’t understand, “But mistaking me as someone else will not make the situation better. If you’re here to spy on your enemy’s situation, but was unfortunately discovered by me, I can act as if you were never here. Or do you wish for me to inform the Ministry of Magic, attracting a huge amount of Aurors to arrest you again?”

The man widened his eyes, opening his mouth for quite some time before he finally spitted out, “...Are you too deep into the act?”

Dumbledore was screaming in his heart. He desperately hoped that he could use some spell to teach this impertinent Dark Lord some lesson, how dare he?! How dare he describe his sincerity as ‘too deep into the act’?! “Seems like you prefer the latter.” Dumbledore hid his emotions and said coldly. He knew the Aurors never did give up surveilling him, if he wanted to, he could inform the Aurors about the current situation anytime.

“Oh, no, no no no--” the man waved his hands nervously, took a step forward before Dumbledore tried to pull out his wand, “I mean, uhh, i don’t know, you sound like……” the man spoke incoherently, then he looked as if he realised something, tranced, he opened his mouth, “......You are, you’re Dumbledore?”

Dumbledore grasped the wand that slipped to his sleeve’s cuff, frowning, and nodded.

“Oh, God--” He saw the man turning pale quickly, not the kind of pale as he was originally, more like the over-shocked kind. “You said you teach here?”

Dumbledore nodded again, quite certain something was wrong.

“I’m at, my God, is this Hogwarts?”

“Yes.” Dumbledore observed the man dubiously, asking uncertainly, “have you lost your memory?” Oh, he knew how unreliable this assumption was. But if there was a dark wizard standing in front of you, and looked like Grindelwald, sounded like Grindelwald, but other than these, was nothing like Grindelwald, you would think the same. 

“No--”

“I guess so.” Dumbledore said, not surprised.

“It’s worse than that.” The Dark Wizard said dazingly, as if he hadn’t heard Dumbledore’s words, “I’ve entered the movie.”

***

The Dark Lord and Dumbledore looked at each other, wordless.

They were sitting together in Dumbledore’s office, a transfiguration professor’s office are usually small and packed, but Dumbledore cleared out some space to make place for his hobbies and collections.

The blonde man cupped his hands around a cup of lemon tea, his face blurred by the steam. Dumbledore looked at the man through the steam, trying to digest the information he received just now.

“What do you mean you don’t belong to this world?”

“Uhm…… I’m an actor, you know? Actor?” 

“I know actors.” Dumbledore rubbed his temple, he had seen this kind of job on Muggle’s newspaper, people act for a living, they even setted up a “Hollywoodland” sign in Los Angeles.

“Great,” the man was relieved that he didn’t need to explain what actor is, “in my world, I played as Grindelwald. This is probably why you think we look exactly the same.”

Dumbledore’s frown deepened, so deep it looked as if it could kill a fly. “If you’re exactly the same, how are you going to prove that you’re not lying? This might just be another one of Grindelwald’s lies.”

“Oh-- about that, we are almost the same, but not entirely.” the ‘Grindelwald’ who claimed to be an actor smiled, unlike the real Grindelwald, his smile felt real to Dumbledore. “Our eyes are different, I’m not heterochromia.” He said, while both his hands tinkered with his eye, then he took down something that was transparent. Now Dumbledore can see clearly that the man had a pair of dark eyes, both the eyes were the same.

“You can alter your eye colour?” Dumbledore had never heard of this sort of magic. But he guessed it would work like a simplified version of transfiguration, only meant for the eyes.

The man froze, and shook his head quietly, “No, no no no, this, this is a contact lens.” He stretched out his hand to Dumbledore so he could see the transparent and fragile object on his finger tip, “See? I had a contact lens of a different colour on.”

Dumbledore took it over, studied it meticulously for a little while, and raised his eyebrows slightly, “is this a new Muggle technology?”

“Sort of.” The man shrugged, “I remember the script saying it’s 1927 now.” Dumbledore nodded as an affirmation, the man continued, “I came from 2020, almost a century later, can you understand?”

Dumbledore’s eyebrows shot up so fast they were almost flying, “you said you’re from the future?”

“Another world’s future.” The man corrected.

“And that means……?”

“Our world doesn’t have magic.”

“Or maybe you just didn’t know.” For the first time since meeting, Dumbledore relaxed his frown, and laughed softly, “according to your sayings, you’re probably a Muggle. But in our world -- still you theory -- Muggles didn’t know we exist. It’s not contradicting.”

“No, no no no, we know you exist.” Dumbledore’s eyes widened at this, the man then added quickly, “No, that’s not right, you didn’t exist. That’s not right either, you didn’t exist in this form. God, I’m really not good at this.”

“Your words are very peculiar.” Dumbledore hid his surprised expression, he had used up this year’s amount of shock just today, and a peculiar man using peculiar words to describe a peculiar world doesn’t seem so peculiar now. “You said you played as, umm, Grindelwald?”

“Yeah.” The man was relieved.

“That means you know about us.”

“Yeah.” The man nodded.

“You came from the future.”

“Yes.”

“That means, by 2020 Muggles are able to get along with Wizards and Witches?”

Dumbledore wasn’t sure whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, if the future the man described is real, it might mean Grindelwald’s victory in the near future. Has the war between the Wizarding world and the Muggles broke out? Has Grindelwald’s prophecies come true? Suddenly, countless questions came to his mind. But he couldn’t ask.

The man seemed to be caught in some more anxious kind of entanglement, he alternated between nodding and shaking his head, “we had always get along-- I mean, there are no difference between the Muggles and the Wizarding world, you know, we act as Wizards and Witches, but aren’t a real one.”

“Is this the difference? In your world Wizards and Witches were always able to get along with Muggles.” If such a world really existed Dumbledore thought he would yearn to go.”

The man shook his head and waved his hands in a more aggressive manner, wanting to explain something yet having no idea how to start, finally he sighed in defeat, and smiled bitterly, “no, that’s not the case. We just don’t…...you know what, never mind that. Generally, I’m from another world’s future. I’ll be really grateful if you can understand this.

Dumbledore nodded, even though he didn’t understand entirely, but he was able to accept this fact. After all, compared with Grindelwald finding him, another man that came from another world and looked exactly like Grindelwald was more acceptable.  
“By the way, I’m Johnny, Johnny Depp, D-E, double P.”

“A rather rare last name.” Dumbledore commented, he could accept this, but giving a complete trust is something he couldn’t do. He doubtfully filled his, the man who called himself Johnny, cup again, while continued trying to ask, “Mr Depp, how did you come here?”

“Oh, that’s a good question. If I know the answer, you will be the first person I’ll tell.” The man shrugged, placing the teacup on the coffee table, “we planned to film the third Fantastic Beast movie, I arrived at the set, the make-up artist put on make-up for me, we worked on the styling for a while, and the hair. After everything was ready, I walked out of the dressing room, and then I’m here, I had no idea where this was, but it looked like the set-up scene on the set, except it feels more realistic, you know, the set can’t be this, uhh, magnificent. I wanted to ask what’s going on, but the dressing room’s door disappeared, there wasn’t anyone around, it was really weird, do you understand? I totally had no idea what happened. Then I saw you.”

“You said I looked like......one of your friends?”

“Oh, yeah, almost. We’ve only met in the premiere. I saw some of his works, but we weren’t familiar. His name is Jude Law.”

“Weird name.” Dumbledore muttered, he still couldn’t fully understand what the man said, but there’s a more pressing, yet had been neglected by them, matter. If the man really wasn’t Grindelwald, “then where’s the real Grindelwald?”

Johnny startled for a while, and said astounded, “no matter where he is, I sincerely wish he’s not on my set.”


	2. Chapter 2

The real Grindelwald was, of course, unfortunately at the set that was preparing to start filming.

This was an almost three stories tall warehouse, on one side of the wall a 10 feet tall green screen was set up, the site , that was cleaned, was paved with various tracks, lightings were ready, they could start filming any time now. This was when David Yates entered the set in a rush, announcing that the filming had been cancelled, asking everyone to return home for isolation. 

Grindelwald stood in the middle.

For a very long period of time his mind was blanked. One second ago he was still at Nurmengard, discussing the next step of their plan with Queenie and Vinda, then he stood up, wanting to check on Credence’s situation, he opened the door, and the overwhelmingly rowdy noise devoured him. Individuals walked back and forth hastily, some carried weird looking machines, others began to take down the lofty green screen, and still others were tidying stuff. One of the men who was holding a megaphone, and announcing about something being cancelled, walked toward him, he looked friendly and funny, with almost no hair, wore only thick clothes, Grindelwald had never seen him before.

“Hi, Johnny.” The man in a peculiar outfit stopped in front of him and said, in an overly affectionate manner, “I’m very sorry, the filming is cancelled because of the pandemic, we wish more to protect the safety of the actors. I’ve contacted Stephen (Stephen Deuters, Depp’s friend, colleague and assistant), he said he will send your private plane to pick you up at a suitable time.”

When the man spoke his first word, Grindelwald forced his brain to turn quickly. Apparently, he’s currently in a situation where he didn’t understand anything that's happening at all, these situations were rare, but not something he had never experienced. He had dealt with situations that were more menacing, more troublesome, plus the person before him didn’t seem to mean any harm.

“Thank you.” Grindelwald said, restrainedly. Although he didn’t entirely understand what the man said, he deduced, from the manner he spoke and the content spoken, the man had assisted him in some way.

“It’s nothing.” The bald man smiled, Grindelwald guessed his reply just now was right. “Do you want to remove your makeup first? Gloria (Gloria Pasqua Casny, Depp’s personal hair stylist in Crimes of Grindelwald) is probably pissed off, she was just finished with your hairstyle.”

“Yeah, she’s probably pissed off .” Grindelwald tried repeating what the man said, in order to reduce the risk of exposing himself, “but I feel like resting for a bit first.” Second way of lowering the risk, avoid interacting with others before understanding the situation.

“Oh, of course, of course you would want to have some rest. I’m so stupid, you’ve been here since four in the morning to makeup, you must be exhausted by now.” The man looked down at his wrist watch, smiled apologetically, “isn’t it, it’s already eight o’clock.”

Grindelwald nodded in coordination. In fact, he was indeed a little exhausted, it is not the time to rest now, he desperately needed everything that was related to his present situation, like where is he at, who are all these people, he tried using Legilimency without the man’s knowledge, it was unexpectedly successful, the only problem was, the thoughts that he saw were as unusual as the words that popped out of his mouth. The man was calculating the loss and gain, planning schedule, he wanted to call his financial management, and his family, he was thinking about the pandemic, the new coronavirus, and the many things to do next. But there was no doubt, Grindelwald didn’t understand a single thing.

“Where can I get some rest?”

Grindelwald tried asking a new question. He observed that there was a hint of surprise on the man’s face for a split second, guessing that was probably not something ‘he’ would normally say. He silently took a mental note, and waited quietly for an answer.

“Oh, you want to go to the lounge right? I’m sorry but they might be packing things up in the lounge now, it might be a bit noisy. I suppose you can go have some rest in your trailer, if you don’t plan to play the guitar.” The man laughed as he said, he seemed to be making a joke about him.

\--He knows how to play a guitar?

Grindelwald has seen some Wizards playing that sort of Muggle instrument, but he personally had never tried.

“My…… trailer? There?” Another new term, Grindelwald thought, no matter what a trailer was, it sounded like something that belonged to him, this made him feel slightly secured. In order not to appear to be too weird, he pointed in a random direction, pretending to be confused because of his sleepiness, “I’m a little senseless…...”

“Oh!” The man looked like he had just understood something, “you didn’t rest properly recently? I’ve heard about you and your ex-wife, was the case held recently? I’m very sorry, the lawyers from the sun must be hard to deal with. No wonder you’re exhausted. Your trailer is right there.” The man pointed in a different direction, Grindelwald could see the looming white box-shaped object, that might be the trailer they said.

“Thanks.”

Grindelwald thanked again, and walked toward the trailer alone. From what the man just now said, Grindelwald was certain they had mistaken him as someone else. On the way to the trailer, all those who met him greeted him with friendliness, they smiled to him, gave him their regards, and told him to rest well. To be honest, the kindness he had received in the past five minutes was more than the combination of all those he received in the past 44 years of his life.

He stopped in front of the trailer, observing to and fro the white from afar, but was painted with various graffiti that could be found only when near, trailer. It looked something like the Muggle’s horse-drawn carriage, the common feature being the wheels, although this looked way sturdier, the sizable carriage was probably more comfortable. He stretched out his hand to pull the door, only to find it was, unfortunately, locked. Grindelwald panicked for a while wondering whether to ask someone how does he opens the door, or simply use magic to unlock it. Except he chose the latter without much hesitation.

Entering the trailer, the sight that entered his eyes reminded him of the Extension Charm, the inside looked way larger than the outside, there was a bed, stove, fridge, cabinets, sofa, dining table and chairs, toilet, air-conditioning, stereos, etc -- anything you need. And many things of which he couldn’t recognise.

He sat down on the sofa, and noticed a guitar next to him, it wasn’t like the ones he had ever seen, but it was similar enough for him to recognise what it was. Then he noticed, on the counter-top, a flat, palm-sized metal box or something. He wasn’t sure what the material was, but it didn’t weigh much in his hand.

Other than that there were a few books that Grindelwald had never heard of, but were obviously not books that were magic-related. There was also some sheet music, handwritten letters, Grindelwald noticed it wasn't a quill pen. Further inside, there was a bed with a few clothes on it, similar to those the people he met outside wore but in a different style, before today, he had never seen anyone wearing clothes like that. The clothes were neither Muggle nor Wizard, they looked like they were one of their own kind.

He walked to the bedside, discovered a paper calendar, written on it were March 16, 2020.

\--March 16, 2020???!!!

This is not good, he came to…… the future?!

Calm down. Grindelwald admonished himself, maybe he really was exhausted recently -- first he escaped MACUSA’s prison, went to France without any rest, planning their next step without a stop before he could even recover from his jet lag, he had finally finished tidying the Muggle house, but only lived there for a few days before returning to Austria. There wasn't any time to rest.

Maybe he had mistaken 1927 for 2020. Grindelwald took a deep breath, let his eyes refocused on the calendar--

“......”

Maybe this was Ministry of Magic’s new trick, creating a future world to make him think he’s mad.

Grindelwald tried tracing the fluctuations of magic around him, if this really was Ministry of Magic’s doing, he’s absolutely confident that he could detect it. 

However, after 10 minutes, he sensed nothing at all.

Or rather, this place had no connection with magic. There weren’t any magical objects, there weren't any traces of magic, there weren’t any populations that were connected with the wizarding world even.

Grindelwald realised in horror, there wasn't any magic in this world. What does this indicate? He inflicted a war between the Wizarding world and the Muggles, but the Wizards and Witches were defeated? This is impossible! He prepared everything! The Muggles were victorious? They've slaughtered the Wizards and Witches, like how they slaughtered their own people? Did they aim their weapons at the Wizards and Witches, wiping out all of them?

Grindelwald breathed deeply. His mind was a mess, he had never considered the possibility of this outcome, he had never thought that the Muggles could win, they were stupid, and knew nothing about magic, how could they……?

\--Or, this was the reason he came to the future.

All this time, he had always seen fragments of the future from a prophet’s point of view, but now he’s in the future, he is experiencing the future by himself, he might be able to change all of this!

“History……”

Grindelwald rubbed his eyes, he really was tired, but it wasn’t the time to rest, he should find out all about the history of this future world as soon as possible, to understand what had happened in the recent century that had caused their failure. But he couldn’t just ask, if his hypothesis was true, these people most likely bear great malice toward Wizards and Witches, they would think of a way to eliminate him, just like what they did to the magic in this world. But there’s a thing he could take advantage of, the people obviously had mistaken him for someone else, this is a good disguise, as long as he imitated similar enough, no one would see through his disguise.

After confirming his plan, Grindelwald started organising the informations that he already knew. Firstly, the man he was mistaken for had an ex-wife, that’s troublesome. Next, this man could play guitar -- well, this he can learn. Finally, this man was very polite -- this could be seen from the fact that people were used to him thanking them, and treated him with utmost kindness.

Most importantly, the man he was talking to earlier mentioned something about removing makeup and hairstyle, maybe he and the man they thought he was weren’t exactly the same, he needs to first find a picture of this man, so he could transfigure himself as soon as possible…… 

Grindelwald brainstormed quickly, until a sudden, inexplicable noise interrupted him.

The sound came from the flat, rectangle, little box he saw earlier, right now its pitch-black screen lit up, a person’s coloured portrait appeared on it, and two other icons, one red and another green. Other than making noises, it’s also vibrating, as if he himself was also scared.

Grindelwald noticed a row of alphabets below the portrait.

Stephen Deuters. The name that was mentioned earlier, the man had said he prepared a private jet for him. It sounded very cool.

He placed the vibrating little thing on his palm carefully, not sure what to do. This apparently was some kind of communicating method, like owls or similar objects that the Muggles invented. He tried tapping the red button, and the words ‘call ended’ appeared immediately.

\--Well, at least now he knows it was a wrong choice.

Not long after, the same thing occurred again, this time Grindelwald pressed the green button without any hesitation, some words about calling appeared on the interface. A voice came out from it.

“Johnny?”

That’s his name. Grindelwald made a mental note, they had mistaken him as Johnny.

“Oh, it’s me.”

Grindelwald wasn’t sure whether that was the right way to answer. But the voice from the metal box didn’t seem to mind.

“Are you driving to the airport? Or should I get someone to pick you up? We are taking off in three hours.”

“Come pick me up, I’m a little tired today.”

Grindelwald replied. Of course, he didn’t know where the airport was, or how to drive, he didn’t even know who’s picking him up.

“Oh, alright, this morning really sucks. I called a car to fetch you, sent the plate number and the driver’s information to your phone, remember to check your message.

Then they chattered for a while, and finally hung up. Grindelwald was relieved at the sight of the words ‘call ended’, then he remembered the message Stephen had told him -- God knows how you use this thing?!

Grindelwald glared at the rectangular metal piece, looking as the screen went from bright to dark, and turned pitch-black. Defeated, he collapsed onto the sofa, deciding to only think about the so-called message 10 minutes later. He really, really needed a little rest, just a little……

Wizards and Witches wouldn’t get eliminated just because of his 10 minutes rest……

The Muggles are still dumb, but their inventions are very smart……

Stephen, message, driver, plate number, what are all these……

He’s too sleepy……

Grindelwald yawned, and finally went to a deep sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Grindelwald had disappeared.

It was supposed to be a good news that’s worth being celebrated by the magical community and even the Muggles, but right now Dumbledore’s worried about it. He’s not the only wizard who was aware of Grindelwald’s disappearance, he might not even be the first to know. Considering the time Johnny spent waiting in front of the castle, Vinda Rosier or Queenie Goldstein had most likely discovered something before him.

A round-headed snowy owl landed on Dumbledore’s shoulder, its brown beak that was hooked at the tip carrying a letter sealed with a red sealing wax. Dumbledore unfolded the letter, skimmed through the few lines in it, and deepened his frown.

Johnny stayed quietly, next to him, and didn’t try to peak at his letter or ask who it was from, for some reason Dumbledore felt at ease for the first time in a long time. He burned the letter with a silent spell, and after giving it some thought, he had decided to bring Johnny to somewhere else for now.

“Hold on to my hand.” He directed.

Johnny startled, “sorry?”

Dumbledore sighed, “you can’t stay here, there’s no one in Hogwarts who don’t recognise your face, you can’t transfigure, and I can’t brew a polyjuice potion out of nothing, so the best solution is to stay out of view somewhere among the Muggles. What do you say?”

“I say that couldn’t be better.” Johnny blinked, and said in the fastest speed Dumbledore had heard him in. Only then did Dumbledore realise, this pair of eyes too were capable of manifesting such an innocent look.

They disapparated.

It was a small apartment on the South bank of the River Thames, with a master bedroom and two guest rooms, more than enough for two. As Dumbledore stepped into the living room, he conjured the tea set from the cabinet and charmed them to make Johnny some tea, while he strode over to the study and wrote two letters, one to Hogwarts’ headmaster requesting for a few days leave, and another to Wizengamot, informing them that he was unable to attend the hearing of the young wizard who used authorised magic on a 21st birthday party, tonight. 

“We have several problems.” Finishing his tasks, Dumbledore entered the living room once again, sat down on the armchair beside Johnny's, “my messenger informed me, Rosier and the others are currently searching high and low for you -- uhm, Grindelwald. They are suspecting that you might be here with me.”

“Seems like their suspicion aren’t unreasonable,” Johnny said, not understanding the problem, “uhh, that means?”

“It means that when they find you, only to realise you’re not Grindelwald, and a Muggle even -- do you understand what I mean? They aren’t exactly kind toward Muggles.” Of course, it’s more likely that they would suspect I did something to you. Dumbledore thought sourly, but didn’t voice it out.

“Sounds terrible.”

“We need to do something. We can brew a polyjuice potion to make you look like another Muggle, but that would take time, and it’s easy to be exposed. Or we can transfigure you into something else, but I don’t think you can accept that. Furthermore, we can’t predict what Grindelwald's acolytes do, when they realise that he had disappeared.” Dumbledore explained. Explaining this was particularly difficult, as he seldom exposes his own thoughts completely, even rare for him to explain himself to others, as he didn’t really expect anyone to understand him. But, when he’s facing him, even when the person before him was nothing like the counterpart, save his appearance, he couldn’t help but longed to be understood, accepted, even though the things he was about to do, about to say make even himself feel cruel. “I beg of you,” he said, forcing himself not to tremble, “it will lead you to danger, but I promise to give in everything to make sure you are safe. I just wish for you to, for the time before both of you return to your respective worlds, temporarily replace Grindelwald, and gain their trust. We will have the chance to stop everything before Grindelwald’s power advances into a real disaster; to stop this calamity.”

“I’m not really sure if I understand what you mean,” Johnny’s eyes widened slowly, unable to digest the contents in his words, but repeated dryly, “you’re saying, me, stop Grindelwald? Me?”

Dumbledore wanted to nod, but the action was equally difficult for him.

Silence was like a deafening grenade that exploded abruptly in the living room, Dumbledore looked at Johnny, Johnny didn’t know where to look. This was unfair to him,Dumbledore realised in anguish, he’s a Muggle, someone that was involuntarily dragged into this disaster, and his sin might only be sharing the same appearance with the infamous Dark wizard, people would hate him because of his appearance, and not because who he actually is. People would be desperately eager to send him to his death, not because of his wrongdoing, but because he was born this way.

This is unfair.

But the world didn’t leave Dumbledore much of a choice. Of course they could remain hidden until they found a way to switch back, or remain hidden for life. He can provide shelter for this man until there’s no place to hide, until the cat is out of the bag. He can even force the man to stay, it will be a peaceful world without Grindelwald’s existence forever.

But that’s equally unfair.

He couldn’t and will never be able to destroy another world, destroy this man’s life for the greater good. He couldn't and will never be able to let an opportunity that was right before his eyes slip away from between his fingers again. He couldn’t and will never be able to imagine a world without Grindelwald.

He desperately wished that one day, everything that he did, things that are torturing his conscience, his heart, would be forgiven. But that day is far from arriving.

After a while, when Dumbledore finally pulled himself out of his emotions, Johnny was looking at him.

“Oh, I’m not saying that I don’t want to help you, or that I don’t trust in your promise.” He was hesitating, “but I don’t know any magic, I’m saying, completely, don’t know a single thing. Even though I said, you know, I acted as Grindelwald, but that was just, waving the props, and some CGI, and _Boom!_ It looks like real magic, but in reality they aren’t.”

“I understand what you mean.” Dumbledore smiled nervously, that’s right, he felt nervous, because it sounded as if the man started his sentence with ‘I trust you’, ‘i believe you can protect me’ or ‘I’m happy to help you’, honestly, how long have they met? Two hours? Maybe lesser. Trust? Ridiculous. “We can fabricate a story, something like you lost your magic. But it wouldn’t affect you in joining in the mental works, continuing to map out the plans for your acolytes.”

Johnny frowned slightly, it’s an action he does when he’s thinking. Dumbledore realised, unlike Grindelwald, when Johnny is deep in thoughts, he never looked at anyone, he didn’t even like to look at others while he’s expressing his own thoughts -- to Dumbledore, it means that he’s not attempting to convince other individuals. “Sounds plausible.”

Dumbledore nodded, “we still need some safeguard. If you found yourself in danger or anyone of them started suspecting you, tried to confront you, leave.”

“Fair enough.”

“And communication……”

They spent two days planning all of these, first of all, they needed to take care of Johnny’s safety, so Dumbledore bewitched a button on the white blouse under Grindelwald’s coat into a portkey -- without the Ministry’s permission, but who cares, he’s Albus Dumbledore -- to use it, all he needs to do is to tap on the button lightly, then he will be teleported back to this apartment. Furthermore, Dumbledore casted a series of protection charms on Johnny, some to delay harm and danger from happening, some to send distress signals, and still some that only can be triggered when there’s no other options left. Next is communication, Dumbledore spent some time on this, he created two journals, both connecting with the other, so when either side wrote on their journal, the other journal would receive the message. Similarly, it’s counted as dark magic that was forbidden by the Ministry, but Dumbledore is getting more and more proficient with these.

Finally it’s the fib. A whole he's injured and lost his magic and even some of his memories fib.

“It sounds unconvincing.” Johnny said, frowning, “you know? I think lies are bad.”

Dumbledore knew what he meant. Lies are bad, it’s always bad, but overall speaking, his whole life, until now, had been full of lies, sometimes he almost got used to it, and some other times, he had even lied without realising he did.

But Johnny said something he hadn’t considered at all, “using lies to cover up lies will only create more and more loopholes. The best thing to do is to tell only a single lie, and remain honest about everything else.”

“......you are saying, losing your memory?”

Johnny shook his head, “no, if it’s memory loss, they might not even let me join…… you know, their plans and all.”

“You are right. You have a better idea?”

“What do you think about, losing my magic because the blood pact is broken?”

“I think it isn’t one lie, it’s a lot of them.”

“Other than the fact that I’m not Grindelwald, there’s nearly no other lies in it.” Johnny said innocently, “you have the pendant, you destroyed the pendant, you can harm Grindelwald -- now we have the first condition, you have the pendant, and the outcome, you can harm Grindelwald, I mean, me. You can harm me, although the reason is different, you know, but it has the same outcome, all we need to do is to fill in the part where the pendant is destroyed. You’re going to destroy it sooner or later anyway.”

Dumbledore remained silent for a little while, he could totally understand what Johnny meant, as he always repeated himself, and spoke rather slowly. These gave Dumbledore enough time to process, and it is indeed a brilliant idea. All they did was turn something that needed to be done into something that was done, Grindelwald getting injured because of that losing his magic, is really reasonable. Breaking a blood pact had a high price to pay anyway, and most importantly, no one knows what exactly is the price, because no one has ever done it before. So no one will even question the injuries and damages Grindelwald had.

“Alright.” Dumbledore let out a sigh. He couldn’t refute, Johnny was right. All they needed was a destroyed pendant, which Dumbledore can fake. Then it’s some minor details such as the injuries, and Johnny thinks make-up is more than sufficient for this step, as he had acted in various injury scenes, he knows perfectly how to handle them. A bitter smile hung over Dumbledore’s face in the end, when he first suggested the idea, he had never imagined it to turn into this. “As a Muggle, you are certainly one of the most dauntless ones I’ve ever met.”

Johnny then smiled, bashful, “then you have mistaken. I’m terrified, scared to death, and wish I could go home immediately.”

Dumbledore was shocked by his straightforwardness.

“But you didn’t, you chose to help me.”

“Because I’ve nothing better to do?” Johnny smiled lightly, he spoke with his husky voice, deep and charming, “if I can go home, my friend, I’ll definitely leave right away. But I have no place to go, in this world, in a world that I don’t belong to I have nowhere to go. I never know if I can really relax, leave my brain idle, I’m saying, this might be weird, but, whenever I’ve settled down I’ll feel restless.

“That is the way you find security? Feeling safe by seeking thrill and danger?”

This is an unique feeling, because in some way, Dumbledore thinks he can understand. He yearned for pleasures that are serene and calm, but was afraid at the same time, peacefulness would consume his agile brain, would dullen his sensitivity, hence he would always find strange things to do in order to maintain his passion for life. He studied about dragon’s blood, even though no one knows what’s the use for it, he studied alchemy, although it’s not exactly one of his hobbies. He just couldn't accept mundanity, couldn’t let himself have peace, couldn’t settle down.

“I dare say you are good at this too.”

Both Dumbledore and Johnny laughed simultaneously. Johnny even walked forward and hugged him, it’s been 28 years since he last hugged anyone, it felt strange. It’s not that he didn’t hug any of his students, but that’s different, Johnny’s felt like a real hug, he hugged very tightly, with utmost sincerity, like the wilderness under moonlight, a darkness that was bright and fire that was cold engulfed him.

At that moment, a certain thought flashed across his mind like a shooting star gliding through the starry night, he wished that the hug came from the other person.

While they were talking, Johnny was already finished with his authentic injuries, Dumbledore observed that Johnny didn’t exactly enjoy the process, but as he didn’t mention, Dumbledore didn’t ask.

The snowy owl sent yet another message, Abernathy and Rosier were getting closer and closer to Hogwarts.

“It’s time for me to unleash my professionalism.”

Johnny tried to look relaxed. But Dumbledore didn’t miss the nervousness within, acting as a threatening individual and replacing said individual meant something more than just death.

He disapparated with Johnny like how they first apparated here, reappearing at where they first encountered.

Johnny took a deep breath, shook his shoulders, like a gladiator preparing himself before stepping into the arena. Dumbledore stayed where he was, looking at Johnny proceeding towards their ‘battle field’. Just a moment, or the blink of an eye later, Dumbledore saw the man who was always bashful and restrained left, replaced by a suddenly composed man. Like a surging ocean calming down in an instance, his back was straight, a certain aura that didn’t belong to Johnny enveloped the distancing figure from head to toe.

That moment, his confidence, power, danger was written on every single thread of his hair. Determination and innocence were colliding in his body simultaneously, he was complex, he was contradictory, he was all the evil and good intertwining together in the depths.

Dumbledore couldn’t breath.

He disappeared instantly, and didn't get to see the moment Rosier and Abernathy brought the Grindelwald who was ‘at death’s door’ away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember to comment down below to tell us what you think! Did you enjoy it? Any guesses on what's gonna happen??

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, I personally love the story, the story line I mean, which isn't mine. If you enjoyed my translation, remember to drop by the original fic and leave some love!!! (Don't worry, the author understand English.)  
> Also, sorry if there're any mistakes, English ain't exactly my first language..


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